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Isn't the SMS pricing racket pretty much limited to America? Do other countries also charge exorbitant amounts for sending text messages?

citricsquid 16y ago
Most serious texters here in England have contracts which include a large number of "free" texts, but my own experience is paying £0.10 per message which is about $0.18. I'm on a contract phone now with "free" texts, so prices may have changed in the past few years.
- pyre 16y ago
  In the US, you pay to receive text messages as well when you aren't on an unlimited plan.
l0nwlf 16y ago
Yes, they do. In India the average price of sending an SMS is 1 rupee, the same as making a call for 60 seconds. EDIT: Which carrier ? Unless you buy SMS pack, the default rate per SMS is rupee 1. Am talking about Airtel and BSNL. I think the article too mentions this. Quoting it: "The wireless companies all told Kohl's antitrust committee that while the price of individual texts was going up, consumers were paying far less per text by buying huge bundles for flat rates."
- kingsley_20 16y ago
  Having just moved back to India, and having researched SMS rates/recharge behaviour for an app I'm building, you're getting a bad deal. The bad deal is the default in India, but knowledge of how to fix that is so widespread, and fixing it is so easy that effective SMS prices are closer to Rs0.02-0.05.
- statictype 16y ago
  Seriously? I live in India and I get something like 3000 free messages a month. (I don't think I use more than 150 of those). I'm under the impression that local messaging in India is practically free.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - statictype 16y ago
    I'm using Airtel. I have no idea what my actual scheme is but I do know that I hardly pay anything on local text messages. And almost everyone I know in India (regardless of carrier) has a similar deal where the cost of sms is, as they say, a rounding error. The exception is when they charge extra on holidays. I guess that part is a bit of a racket, though a more benign explanation would be that they're just trying to keep the network traffic to a maintainable level on those days.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
ozziegooen 16y ago
Singapore too isn't perfect. They don't charge as much as in the U.S., but it's still much greater than zero. Phone plans in general are much more reasonable here (prepaid phone plans are much more common, I got a SIM card with a decent amount of time for $10.) I'm not exactly sure how much they cost, but I've definitely noticed my $10 running out quickly with nothing other than texts.

citricsquid 16y ago

Most serious texters here in England have contracts which include a large number of "free" texts, but my own experience is paying £0.10 per message which is about $0.18. I'm on a contract phone now with "free" texts, so prices may have changed in the past few years.

pyre 16y ago
In the US, you pay to receive text messages as well when you aren't on an unlimited plan.

l0nwlf 16y ago

Yes, they do. In India the average price of sending an SMS is 1 rupee, the same as making a call for 60 seconds. EDIT: Which carrier ? Unless you buy SMS pack, the default rate per SMS is rupee 1. Am talking about Airtel and BSNL. I think the article too mentions this. Quoting it: "The wireless companies all told Kohl's antitrust committee that while the price of individual texts was going up, consumers were paying far less per text by buying huge bundles for flat rates."

kingsley_20 16y ago
Having just moved back to India, and having researched SMS rates/recharge behaviour for an app I'm building, you're getting a bad deal. The bad deal is the default in India, but knowledge of how to fix that is so widespread, and fixing it is so easy that effective SMS prices are closer to Rs0.02-0.05.
statictype 16y ago
Seriously? I live in India and I get something like 3000 free messages a month. (I don't think I use more than 150 of those). I'm under the impression that local messaging in India is practically free.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- statictype 16y ago
  I'm using Airtel. I have no idea what my actual scheme is but I do know that I hardly pay anything on local text messages. And almost everyone I know in India (regardless of carrier) has a similar deal where the cost of sms is, as they say, a rounding error. The exception is when they charge extra on holidays. I guess that part is a bit of a racket, though a more benign explanation would be that they're just trying to keep the network traffic to a maintainable level on those days.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

ozziegooen 16y ago

Singapore too isn't perfect. They don't charge as much as in the U.S., but it's still much greater than zero. Phone plans in general are much more reasonable here (prepaid phone plans are much more common, I got a SIM card with a decent amount of time for $10.) I'm not exactly sure how much they cost, but I've definitely noticed my $10 running out quickly with nothing other than texts.